Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Hovis Scones
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the Brown and Poison’s Paisley flour and Hovis flour.
Add the butter, sugar, and salt, and mix until crumbly.
In another bowl, beat the egg and combine it with the sweet milk.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently.
Shape and bake
Roll out to about ½ inch thick and cut into rounds.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hovis flour
- Provides the main structure as the bulk of the dry ingredients.
- Brown and poison’s paisley flour
- Adds a second flour to the blend, contributing to the dough's structure and texture.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add fat, tenderness and a crumbly texture.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the scones brown as they bake.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.
The step that matters
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes scones tough and dense. Stop once the dry flour is just moistened, leaving the dough slightly rough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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